Intelligent Surface Recognition for Autonomous Tractors Using Ensemble Learning with BNO055 IMU Sensor Data

Abstract

This study aims to enhance the navigation capabilities of autonomous tractors by predicting the surface type they are traversing using data collected from BNO055 Inertial Measurement Units (IMU sensors). IMU sensor data were collected from a small mobile robot driven over seven different floor surfaces within a university environment, including tile, carpet, grass, gravel, asphalt, concrete, and sand. Several machine learning models, including Logistic Regression, K-Neighbors, SVC, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, AdaBoost, and XGBoost, were trained and evaluated to predict the surface type based on the sensor data. The results indicate that Random Forest and XGBoost achieved the highest accuracy, with scores of 98.5% and 98.7% in K-Fold Cross-Validation, respectively, and 98.8% and 98.6% in an 80/20 Random State split. These findings demonstrate that ensemble methods are highly effective for this classification task. Accurately identifying surface types can prevent operational errors and improve the overall efficiency of autonomous systems. Integrating these models into autonomous tractor systems can significantly enhance adaptability and reliability across various terrains, ensuring safer and more efficient operations.